The Puyallup School Board has scheduled a special meeting Friday (April 10) to talk money matters, including the first of two public hearings on a proposed bond measure designed to relieve overcrowding at district elementary schools.

The board is scheduled to meet from 9 a.m. to noon at the Education Service Center, 302 Second St. S.E. The public hearing will begin around 10:30 a.m.

The board will also discuss the 2015-16 draft budget. Board action on the bond measure is anticipated at the regular board meeting April 20, following a second public hearing.

Last month, a 28-member committee presented the board with two bond alternatives. One would raise an estimated $295 million, the other about $292 million, over 21 years.

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The $295 million package would pay for six elementary school projects, each offering 30 homeroom classrooms for students. Additions, remodeling and some new construction would take place at Firgrove, Northwood, Sunrise, Pope and Shaw Road elementary schools. A new elementary would be constructed on district-owned property on South Hill, at 144th Street East and 80th Avenue East.

The $292 million bond package would cost slightly less because it would include only five school projects. Firgrove, Northwood and Sunrise would be refashioned as 30-homeroom schools, but both the new school and Pope would be larger with 44 homerooms each.